Marked for Aleksandrs Gabovs
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jun 2029
Bohdan Shmyhelskyi damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 104 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market18 Jun 2029
$300.0K from Skonto for Vladimir Pavlov. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
The terraces18 Jun 2029
Supporters turn on the $300.0K sale of Vladimir Pavlov
He is going to Skonto, the club has $300.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad18 Jun 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market18 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rūdolfs Kļavinskis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metta/LU the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jun 2029
Dmitriy Fedortsov damages knee ligaments — 97 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 97 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match4 Jun 2029
Metta/LU are in real trouble now
Position 6, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Artur Tishko: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metta/LU have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market4 Jun 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Metta/LU, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match2 Jun 2029
The wait goes on for Metta/LU
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market4 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sindre Mauritz-Hansen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces4 Jun 2029
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 May 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitriy Fedortsov
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metta/LU lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 May 2029
A fracture rules Curtis Wekesa out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metta/LU will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces21 May 2029
Fear has settled over Metta/LU
Position 6, 7 points, and a crowd that arrives already braced. Relegation seasons are lost in exactly this atmosphere, and everybody who has lived through one recognises it immediately.
Squad21 May 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Metta/LU may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market21 May 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metta/LU is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 May 2029
Shaxzod Shaymanov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match19 May 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 May 2029
A mark of 5.31 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Feb 2029
A fracture rules Artur Tishko out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metta/LU will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Feb 2029
Metta/LU refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Shaxzod Shaymanov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2029
Ivo Minkevičs damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad22 Jan 2029
A fracture rules Artur Tishko out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metta/LU will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market22 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sindre Mauritz-Hansen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mahamud Abdul Karimu, and the manager let it.